SUPERCARS CALENDAR CLARITY

The final shape of the 2021 Supercars championship should become clear tomorrow.

The calendar update is expected to confirm a Bathurst 1000 on Sunday, December 5 and two double-header meetings, likely at Queensland Raceway and Sydney Motorsport Park, each a week apart in November.

But nothing is certain in the time of Covid-19 and there has already been one postponement of a planned calendar confirmation by the CEO of Supercars, Sean Seamer.

The likely details have become clearer since the cancellation of the planned visit to Phillip Island by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and word from the Mayor of the Gold Coast, about the second straight cancellation of the Surfers Paradise street race.

“Devastating. That’s the only way to describe it,” the Mayor told My GC.

“While I’m disappointed with the news, I support the supercars organisation as the risk in establishing this street circuit in these challenging times was too high.”

Building the Gold Coast circuit costs more than $7 million and, with the ongoing threat of snap Covid lock-downs and the closure of the Queensland border to southern states, it was considered too big a risk.

“My message to every motor racing fan … get vaccinated so we can get back on the track in 2022,” says the Mayor.

Vaccinations are also likely to be key to visits to Sydney Motorsport Park, as part of the roadmap to normality in NSW, although Supercars has yet to mandate jabs either for pitlane personnel or spectators.

With Bathurst now likely to be locked for the first weekend of December, Supercars is still planning to stage five events before the end of 2021 with the the championship trail likely to visit Queensland Raceway first, then head to SMP before the annual trek to Bathurst and then – potentially – quarantine time before Queensland teams return to home base.

Seamer is intending to brief the motorsport media as part of his commitment to regular updates on the calendar, and all other Supercars business.